1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of testing of equipment and, more particularly, to a method of and system for testing of electronic equipment, such as mobile terminals used within a cellular telecommunications system, during a manufacturing process.
2. Description of Related Art
Since cellular telecommunications systems were first introduced in the 1980s, mobile terminals utilized in the systems have become increasingly complex. The mobile terminals were initially designed to provide primarily voice telephony services. In later years, mobile terminals were developed that also included the ability to transfer user data not related to voice telephony. Such user data included, for example, data to be transferred over a dial-up networking connection initiated via a personal computer (PC).
Third generation (3G) cellular telecommunications systems are currently being developed. These 3G systems combine high-speed internet access with traditional voice communication capabilities and will provide users with access to internet browsing, streaming audio/video, positioning, video conferencing, and many other capabilities.
The Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) was established to ensure compatibility among several 3G systems that are being developed around the world. The Universal Mobile Telephone System (UMTS) is being developed by 3GPP to provide a 3G system that includes terrestrial and satellite systems capable of delivering voice, data, and multimedia anywhere in the world.
The drastically increased functionality that is being included in cellular telecommunications systems via the 3GPP standardization has placed substantial demands on the developers of mobile terminals to be used in the systems. These demands are further increased by the fact that a mobile terminal is a resource-scarce environment that is relatively limited in size, memory, and power.
Software and hardware of the mobile terminals must be tested during manufacturing in order to ensure proper operation of the mobile terminals for the end user under expected operational conditions. Many current test programs are standalone applications that are loaded into the mobile terminal to be tested and then executed independently from other software used by the mobile terminal during normal operation of the mobile terminal. After execution of tests via the test program, the test program is typically deleted and the software used by the mobile terminal during normal operation is loaded into the mobile terminal. Thus, software must be loaded into the mobile terminal twice during production. In addition, because the test programs typically do not use the software used by the mobile terminal during normal operation, unnecessary duplication of software often results. In addition, the software used during normal operation is not tested.
There is, accordingly, a need for a method of and system for testing equipment, such as mobile terminals, during manufacturing that solves these and other drawbacks associated with the prior art.